


Stories for Steven: Daycare

by Cepalespis28



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gem War, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 06:26:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7423636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cepalespis28/pseuds/Cepalespis28
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amethyst, created for a war in which she never fought, was born alone and spent a thousand years alone, what happened when the Crystal Gems found her? And who helped her become the Crystal Gem, the hero, we know today?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stories for Steven: Daycare

**The Temple, Beach City**  
  
  
Steven watched the two get ready to leave, dropping by for their first official visit to the Temple, he'd been going out to them at the Barn for so long they thought it was only fair to return the favour. And with it being a spur-of-the-moment thing and Garnet and Pearl off on the trail of another corrupted gem he and Amethyst had been stuck playing hosts  
  
“Thanks for having us over, it was...fun to see this place, it looks a lot different when you're not stuck inside a mirror” Lapis said  
“Yes, it was nice to return to your living quarters after such a long time away” Peridot noted “I even missed the aquatic superficial maintenance and waste dispersement chamber”  
“You mean you miss when you lived in a bathroom?” Lapis asked  
“I...I'm not even going to dignify that with a response Lazuli!” the tiny green dorito pouted, Lapis snickered and kept fighting to suppress a grin even as they waved goodbye and she took off, carrying Peridot rather unceremoniously under one arm, flying back to the countryside  
  
  
“It's nice they can come visit, it sucks they don't wanna stay here with us” Steven said  
“It's not like they could stay here if they wanted to anyway” Amethyst replied, standing beside him  
“They could too, my dad could add some more rooms on, or we could renovate, or...”  
“No, they couldn't stay in the Temple”  
“Why?”  
“Look at the door” Amethyst pointed, Steven saw the star with the dots on each leg, red and blue for Garnet (or Ruby and Sapphire), white for Pearl, purple for Amethyst and pink for him/mom  
  
“So?”  
“So there's only room for five rooms, five gems max”  
“Why?” Amethyst clenched her hand into a fist, sometimes she wished Pearl and Garnet would be more open with him  
“Did your dad tell you what happened at the end of the war?”  
“Yea, you won”  
“Did he say what happened to all the other Crystal Gems?”  
“He said mom could only save a few, her, Pearl, Garnet”  
“And Chalcedony” Amethyst added  
“Who?” Amethyst looked over at the door and sighed,  
“Who do you think I got my room from?”Steven wanted to ask again but got the feeling she didn't want to talk about it, so thought it would be best to leave it alone for now as she went inside her room and the Temple door slid shut  
  
  
That night, after Peridot and Lapis were gone as he struggled to get to sleep, it was long after he usually dropped off to sleep, normally he'd see Amethyst raiding the fridge for a midnight snack and she'd be the last one to say goodnight or even hang out with him until he felt sleepy. But tonight she hadn't come, Amethyst was pretty spontaneous most of the time but she had a few habits she always stuck with and night-time snacking was one of them  
  
  
And who was Chalcedony? His dad had never mentioned her, nor had Garnet or Pearl, he knew Amethyst wasn't around for the war, but she had her own room at the Temple, now he thought about it it didn't add up. He didn't know much about how or why the Temple was here in Beach City (although technically the Temple was there first), his dad and the gems had built the house for him, but the Temple looked ancient, like it had been here for thousands of years, he thought he remembered Pearl saying something about it being there a very long time once  
  
So why did Amethyst have a room that was just for her?  
  
  
The next morning he woke up early, barely able to sleep, he heard the door to the Temple activate and sat up, Garnet strode out and made her way towards the kitchen, then paused  
  
“I know you're up”  
“Garnet...” she turned to look at him “...how long has the Temple been here?”  
“Since before the war, not sure what it once was but your mother led us here after the final battle, me, Pearl”  
“And Chalcedony?” Garnet sighed and sat down at the counter  
“She told you” Garnet didn't ask, she was just stating a fact  
“Yea, was she supposed to? She won't get in trouble will she?”  
“No” she looked over at the Temple door “and she's still up” Steven took the hint and climbed out of bed, he opened the door to his/Roses room as Garnet stood up to make herself a cup of coffee, caffeine didn't really affect her but she liked the taste, it helped calm her down, especially in stressful situations  


  
**Amethyst's Room**  
  
  
Amethyst was busy digging through one of the many, many piles of junk that littered her room, bits and pieces falling everywhere, even into the pool y the pile as she looked for something  
  
“Not here, darn-it, where did I leave it last time?” when she heard a loud splash she looked up  
  
“Hi Amethyst!” Steven called as he paddled towards her from the pool  
“...hey Steven” she said wearily before returning to her search  
“Whatchya doing?” he asked innocently  
  
“Looking for something” she replied before cursing and kicking an old dusty suitcase out of frustration, it sailed through the air and landed behind a row of geodes, neither noticed something stir as the falling suitcase disturbed it  
  
“Argh! Why can't I find it?!” Steven went over to a nearby pile  
“I'll help, what're you looking for?” he asked as he dug through the pile  
“It's a....”she sighed and sat down on a stumpy geode and cast her gaze down at the floor “...forget it, doesn't matter, probably lost it years ago anyway” seeing Amethyst so down, Steven decided to take a chance  
  
“Is it something to do with Chalcedony?” he asked, Amethysts head whipped up at the mention of the name, anger crossed her face before melting back into gloom a split second later  
“...yeah, it is. It was something to do with her”  
“Who was she?” Amethyst's face brightened as she thought back  
“She was the one who found me...”

  
  
**The Prime Kindergarten, 4,486 BS (Before Steven)**  
  
  
The rain beat down onto the ground with force as the clouds rumbled overhead, the warp-pad was covered with a sheen of water as it activated, the only light in the dreary, desolate place  
  
Pearl stepped off the warp-pad first, spear at the ready and advanced slowly, trying to pick out any potential threats  
  
Rose Quartz followed her, her white dress quickly stained along the bottom by the mud as she sloshed through it, Garnet came behind her, implacable as always behind her visor, the final member of the party brought up the rear  
  
She was a little taller than Pearl, roughly halfway between her and Garnet, Her skin was azure and her eyes a bright cyan, her hair prussian blue and cut short, her gem was a slender pale blue oval and located at the base of her throat inbetween where her collar bones should have been. She was dressed in a dark blue body-stocking with a darker coloured breastplate and a long, thin dark blue coat, on her breastplate was a blue diamond with a long scratch running through it, signifying her former allegiance  
  
“Nothing so far” Pearl said, scanning the area with the light from her gem  
“You're sure there's something we need here?” Rose asked Garnet  
“I've seen that we'll find something here that will be a great asset to the Crystal Gems” Garnet replied, rain running down her glasses as Chalcedony batted some rain from her coat  
  
“I hope you're right otherwise we'd be out in the rain and mud for nothing” she muttered, Pearls arm twitched as she clenched her hand into a fist  
“You have something better to do?” Pearl asked over her shoulder, Chalcedony pulled an apple from her gem and began munching on it  
“There's no point wasting time and effort if we're getting nothing from it, we might as well be back at the Temple”  
“Or, you're lazy” Pearl suggested, Chalcedony growled under her breath  
  
“If Garnet says there's something we need here then there's something we need here, she hasn't steered us wrong before” Rose intervened “Pearl, we could do with some more light” Pearl didn't say anything back but her gem glowed even brighter, covering the immediate area around the warp-pad with a faint white light, before moving up to scan the walls of the narrow canyon  
  
“This place never fails to amaze me, the size, the legions of warriors that must have been made here” Chalcedony said, gazing up at the rows of holes, each of which, under the control of Pink Diamond had borne one of the Crystal Gems enemies  
  
“It was a nightmare, I'm glad we shut it down before it got any bigger” Garnet said “so many quartzes, so many pains in the neck” she glanced at Rose and quickly added “no offence”, Rose smiled back  
“None taken Garnet, but Chalcedony's not the only one who wants to get out of the rain, are you getting any other hints of what it is we need to find here? Weapons? Supplies? Information?” Garnet shook her head, sending water droplets flying everywhere  
“I guess we'd better start looking then”  
  
  
At the unspoken suggestion the Crystal Gems fanned out, two going in each direction down the canyon, checking around for...well, anything they thought might be what they needed to find, Pearl looked down at the ground and noticed something  
  
“Over here!” Chalcedony came running and they gathered around what she'd found  
“...why are there footprints here?” Chalcedony asked  
“Did we miss any Homeworld gems?” Pearl asked, Chalcedony leaned in to take a better look at the prints Pearls light was illuminating, all full of water and many almost completely washed away by the rain  
“No, look at the size they're too small for a quartz, if it's Homeworld they're not a soldier”  
“Aristocratic?” Pearl suggested, “or a general” she added, earning a dirty look from the blue gem before she looked over Pearls shoulder and saw something else, pushing past her to get a better look at it  
  
“Hey what are you...” Pearl began to complain but stopped when Chalcedony held up what she'd found, the remains of a bird  
“What...are those bite marks?” Pearl asked in disbelief, Chalcedony nodded  
“The area around the body was churned up, like something jumped on it and ripped it apart to feed”  
“It's not a Homeworld gem then, some kind of organic predator?” Pearl suggested, asking “you spent a lot of time with the humans, any ideas?”  
“No, the bites are too strange, these look, well, human”  
“Human? Well you'd know since you lead their soldiers in the war, and I suppose it's not a stretch, they do struggle to rise above their base instincts” she noted, her nose wrinkling in disgust at the idea of eating, especially hunting down another animal to do it  
  
“From the tracks it would have to be a small human, a...what do they call them?” Pearl asked  
“Child” Chalcedony added  
“Right, a child” Pearl looked around “but we're hundreds of mile from the nearest, err, what are those things they've started living in?”  
“City” Chalcedony proffered, now less pleased  
“...city, how could a child have gotten out here on its own without help?” Chalcedony shrugged, then they heard a clattering as a few stones were dislodged from the side of the canyon, Chalcedony dropped the bird and went for her gem, ready to call her weapon  
  
“It's probably just the storm” Pearl said, snickering, then a much bigger boulder landed with a thud, startling Pearl so much her light went out  
“That wasn't the storm” Chalcedony replied, with a small note of panic in her voice  
“...Maybe it's Rose and Garnet?” Pearl suggested meekly  
“They went the other way and you know the Kindergarten doesn't circle back round” Chalcedony said, then bunches of rocks began to tumble down in quick succession  
“Then what the hell was that?”  
“Don't look at me I don't know!”  
“Humans?!” Pearl yelled, more a statement than a question, there was a rush of air and then a loud crash as...something jumped from one wall of the canyon over to the other, then heard it scrambling around, both pressed closer to each other, trembling with fear  
  
  
“Did you ever meet a human that could do that?” Chalcedony cried  
“A corrupted gem?”  
“OK sure I'll buy that”  
“Then what do we do?” Pearl yelled, there was a flash of lightning and both could see a small, dark shape hanging from the wall of the canyon, looking directly at them before letting out a bestial shriek  
  
Suddenly the fear gave way, the frightened Crystal Gems of peacetime slipped back, the soldiers from the war replacing them, Pearl readied her spear and let flurry of energy shots fly while Chalcedony pulled her weapon from her gem. She hurled the boomerang at the figure, which leapt back out of the way, somersaulted in the air and disappeared into the blackness further down the canyon  
  
“Nice shot” Pearl said, this time sincerely as Chalcedony grabbed the boomerang as it returned to her and pulled out a second, this one larger and with a longer edge, holding it almost like a curved sword as Garnet and Rose came running over, Garnet with her gauntlets ready for action  
  
“We saw your light go out, are you OK?” Rose asked  
“I'm fine Rose but I think there's a corrupted gem here” Pearl replied, adding “some find huh?”  
“It's not it” Garnet said  
“What?”Pearl asked  
“What we're meant to find, it's not meant to be a corrupted gem” Garnet clarified  
“You saw what we're supposed to find?” Pearl asked, Garnet shook her head  
“I can't explain my future vision I just...I know it's not a corrupted gem”  
“Well we can't leave one running around, we should deal with it now, right Rose?” Pearl looked to her mentor  
  
“I agree...we can't leave this thing loose, humans could be hurt if it's allowed to stay wild” Rose drew her sword and summoned her shield “we need to bubble it”  
“It went that way” Pearl said, turning her light back on and pointing down the canyon  
  
  
The gems slowly, carefully, advanced along the canyon floor, all with weapons at the ready as a huge shape loomed out of the darkness. A discarded injector, listing slightly to one side and bearing no damage from their raid during the middle of the war it stood a silent sentinel to what the Kindergarten had once been, and what Homeworld had wanted it to become, in front of it was a large boulder half sunken into the mud  
  
“Hmm” Pearl glanced down at the boulder “...look at the scratches”  
“What does that have to do with anything?” Chalcedony asked  
“Its covered with them, like something was sharpening their claws on it,, or lots of somethings” the idea that there could be more than one had them all on high alert, Rose kept her sword and shield ready, scanning the canyon walls and the holes, any of them could hide whatever it was that they were now hunting  
  
“No, not somethings” Garnet said, leaning over and running a finger across the countless scratch marks “they're all the same size, whatever made this there was only one of it” she traced the marks as they reached the top of the boulder “and they're deeper nearer the top, almost like it was...climbing”  
  
The heavens sent another lightning bolt racing across the sky and in the brief flash all four gems could see the injector, and what was hanging from the top of it, before Chalcedony could throw her boomerang or Pearl could shine her light on it it leapt off the injector onto the canyon wall, scurrying down it vanished into the inky blackness again with a spray of water from the rain  
  
“This thing is really annoying” Pearl muttered, casting her light around to try and find it “Garnet, any ideas?”  
“Nothing, just that whatever we need to find is close now”  
“You mean it's the corrupted gem?” Rose asked, eliciting a shrug from Garnet  
“What are we supposed to do with a corrupted gem besides bubble it?” Pearl asked, casting her light around, trying to find the things trail  
  
“Wait” Chalcedony called, Pearl stopped, the beam of the light focused on a patch of canyon wall “go back”  
“Why?”  
“Just do it” Pearl narrowed her eyes but did as her teammate had asked, the beam swept back over the canyon wall, all the gem could see the top of another hole, the bottom edge of the light dipped inside and a shriek rang out  
  
“I guess we've found our corrupted gem” Pearl said confidently, readying her spear “it's trapped, easy pickings”  
“I don't think that's a corrupted gem” Rose replied, looking over to Garnet who nodded, whatever was inside the hole, it was what they needed to find, she spun her sword round and placed it back in the scabbard  
“Rose?” Pearl asked, concerned for the object of her affection  
“It's OK, I'll be fine” Rose motioned for the others to step back as she slowly approached the hole  
  
“Hello? Are you in there?” she asked, speaking as softly as she had done to the human children Pearl remembered her meeting back in the war, there was a mumbling coming from the hole and she could hear something scraping against the rock at the back. Pearl wondered if whatever was inside it could even understand their leader, who stopped just outside the hole, from her vantage point Pearl could see Roses's eyes fix on something inside  
“You're a small one aren't you?” she slowly leaned in and extended her hand “Do you wanna...”  
  
Whatever was inside barrelled out of the hole with full force, slamming into Rose and hurling her into the air, she hit the injector with a massive clang and dropped to the mud like a sack of rocks  
  
  
Pearl yelled in panic and ran to Rose's aid while Garnet dove forwards at the dark shape, which quickly rolled out of her way only for Chalcedonys boomerang to smack into her head, hard. Chalcedony gave her the briefest apologetic look before catching the boomerang and searching around for whatever came out of the hole. Having checked Rose was OK Pearl began scanning around too, her light beam finally fell on it as it climbed up the canyon walls, she lunged at it with her spear screaming without words, her fear turned to fury, she opened up a seven foot gash in the canyon wall but the shape had leapt out of the way of her blade, Pearl cast around for it in the darkened, her eyes burning with rage  
  
“Get back here! I'll shatter you you evil thing!”  
  
Her light found it again, this time down on the canyon floor by a fallen injector and she bent her knees for another lunge, this one intending to end in whatever it was getting shattered when Rose's shield flew from the darkness and slammed into it. With a painful shriek it crumpled to the floor  
  
The Crystal Gems gathered around the fallen creature, with it finally staying still Pearls light could let them all get a good look at it. It was a small gem, shorter than any of them by several feet, with a huge mass of lavender hair that looked like it would trail along the ground if she tried to stand up, her lilac skin was covered in mud and scratches and her gemstone was set in her chest  
  
  
“What...what is she?” Chalcedony asked  
“She's what we needed to find” Garnet replied, looking down at the gem, her attire gave away her origin, gem, head and hands aside she was covered n a deep purple body-stocking, the default appearance of a newly-formed gem  
  
“Is it...did it come from here?” Pearl asked, looking down at it, unlike the others she hadn't lowered her weapon  
“I think so, look at her size” Rose said “she probably came out of that hole she was hiding in like the other quartzes”  
“It's a quartz? It's tiny” Pearl replied in disbelief  
“But how? We shut this place down during the war” Chalcedony pointed out  
“We?” Pearl asked rhetorically, earning her another dirty look from the blue gem  
  
“It was shut down over a thousand years ago, there weren't any more quartzes made here after Homeworld pulled back to defend its other strongholds” Rose said, looking around at the Kindergarten “has she...has she been alone here since she came out of her hole?”, she began to realize how utterly desolate and remote this place was, to be stuck here on her own... “the poor thing” her voice was tinged with sadness “the poor Amethyst”  
  
“It's one of theirs, it's Homeworld” Pearl said, twirling her spear around to point at the Amethysts head  
“What's that supposed to mean?” Chalcedony asked  
“It's a danger, we can't let it go, we need to bubble it as soon as possible” she brought the spear back  
“She hasn't done anything wrong, Rose said she's been here all this time, she wasn't part of the war”  
“It's a feral weapon, it can't even talk, it eats things, it's too powerful to be left outside, if we bubble it we can get it to the Temple, we can decide what to do there” Garnet whispered something in Roses ear  
“Umm, ladies” Rose tried to jump in, they ignored her and she quietly shuffled off to one side as they kept arguing  
  
“...She's not a corrupted gem, we can't just lock her up like one”  
“So what do we do? You want this thing running around lose? You think the humans can protect themselves from it? What if it gets hungry again?”  
“I'm not saying we let her go I'm saying Garnet had a vision that she could be useful to us, maybe we should listen to her, she could join us” Chalcedony countered as the Amethyst lifted her head up, sniffing the air, Chalcedony pulled another apple from her gem and held it up “just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's bad for everyone else and you can just toss it away”  
  
“So what do you suggest we do then?” Pearl asked  
“I think we...” Chalcedony didn't get to finish as the Amethyst leapt at her, knocking her to the ground and sending them bouncing through the mud, Chalcedony struggled to sit up, wiping mud from her eyes as Amethyst sat there, contently munching on the apple  
  
“...I think she's hungry” Rose suggested as Pearl stared in disbelief  
  
  
“Hang on” Chalcedony pulled another apple from her gem and Amethyst snapped her head around to stare at it, Chalcedony looked over at Rose who gave her a reassuring smile, and then she rolled it along it ground towards Amethyst “you still hungry?” Amethyst looked at her then the apple and darted forwards, Pearl went to move but was stopped Rose putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder  
  
“Let's see how this plays out”  
  
Chalcedony pulled yet more food out of her gem and set it down before her, Amethyst took and ate it all, moving a little closer each time until finally Chalcedony held out a final apple, Amethyst shuffled forwards and snatched it from her hand, munching on it. Slowly Chalcedony held out a slightly trembling hand and rested it on Amethysts head, she flinched a little but settled down, letting out a soft coo  
  
“It's alright, you're alright, no-one's going to hurt you” Chalcedony said softly, trying to copy Rose as best she could, Amethyst let out a yawn and leaned forwards into Chalcedonys lap and closed her eyes, going to sleep. Rose came over as Chalcedony slowly stood up holding the smaller gem in her arms  
  
“Do you think you can keep her still while I bubble her?” Rose asked  
“If she bubbled, she'll go ballistic”  
“Going via warp-pad won't be any easier”  
“What if one of us got bubbled and went with her?” Chalcedony suggested, Rose nodded and held out her hands  
“OK get ready”  
“Wait, I think you should go with her” Rose was taken aback  
“Me?”  
“She isn't a homeworld gem, she's basically a newform, you were the one who handled the human children the best during the war, you'd be better”  
“But she was so close to you”  
“Rose, I fed her, anyone could do that, you're the best bet” she looked up and smiled “you're not scared are you?” she asked jokingly, Rose grinned and took the sleeping Amethyst from her as Chalcedony encased both in a bubble, Rose nodded and Chalcedony sent it on its way  
  
  
“If anything happens to her because of that thing, I'll shatter you, you know that right?” Pearl said matter-of-factly as they began walking back to the warp-pad  
“Duly noted”Chalcedony replied, not breaking her stride and walking on ahead  
  
“You're sure that thing is what we needed to find?” Pearl asked Garnet as the two walked side by side  
“Yep”  
“And it won't hurt anyone?”  
“She won't cause any harm to Rose”  
“Good, good” Pearl said, Garnet said nothing else but didn't forget that Pearl hadn't asked about the rest of them

**Author's Note:**

> And that's chapter one, I'm hoping to make it three chapters overall and any feedback would greatly appreciated
> 
> Much like in 'Sworn to the Sword' Pearl will be serving as an unintentional antagonist for some of this
> 
> An extra tidbit: The gemstone chalcedony is unusual in that is partly formed from quartz, and was traditionally used by the elite of society going back to the bronze age including the Minoan civilization of Crete and Roman Emperors


End file.
